Holland & Knight Represents Mitsubishi in Starlab Space Joint Venture
NEW YORK (April 29, 2024) – Holland & Knight advised Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, on becoming a strategic partner and equity owner of Starlab Space LLC, a joint venture initially formed by Voyager Space and Airbus. The addition of Mitsubishi to the joint venture, announced on April 4, will expand Starlab's reach beyond a transatlantic partnership by transforming the joint venture into a global organization.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Mitsubishi Corporation is a global integrated business enterprise that operates a wide range of businesses spanning multiple industries. Mitsubishi is expected to leverage its capabilities in the interest of increasing the value of Starlab, using space research to enhance and accelerate terrestrial product development in multiple industries and expand access to space-based technologies globally.
Based in Houston, Starlab is designing, building and will operate the Starlab commercial space station, which is expected to replace the International Space Station. Once completed, Starlab will serve a global customer base of space agencies, researchers and companies.
The Holland & Knight deal team was led by Partners Richard Smith and Brent Singley and Associate Andrew Erickson. International trade and national security matters were led by Partner Robert Friedman and Associate Jacob Marco. The Holland & Knight team also included Partners Benjamin Allen, Erin Estevez, Tom Bentz, Alan Schwartz and Terry Wikberg, and Senior Counsel Laura Zielinski.
More information on the transaction can be found here.
Holland & Knight's Satellite and Space Technology Team provides a full suite of legal, regulatory and legislative services to entrepreneurs, startup companies and global industry players. Members of the multidisciplinary team are strategically located in Washington, D.C., the Florida Space Coast, Colorado, Texas, California and other key markets in the U.S and around the globe. The firm provides seamless service to help its clients develop and deploy new innovations and projects within the global satellite communications and space technology field.
Holland & Knight regularly ranks among the leading M&A and private equity law firms in reputable, benchmarking league tables published by Bloomberg, LSEG (formerly Refinitiv), Mergermarket, PitchBook and The Deal. In 2023, the firm ranked among the top five most active law firms in the U.S. and top 10 globally for its work in the space.